Only Deterrent

SPORTS COLUMNIST Barry Cooper discussed the escalating epidemic of cheating in college sports. He only touched on the central issue, i.e., that college athletes are students first and athletes second.

Most athletes in big-time collegiate sports are awarded full scholarships, and obtaining degrees should be their first priority. College presidents finally are taking steps to restore that ideal, and to criticize them for it, as Cooper does, is to show a desire to continue in the present direction.

Cooper doubts the effectiveness of the presidents' initiative by likening their ''death penalty'' -- suspension from playing a sport for two years -- to that of the one given to convicted murderers. That is absurd.

If ratified, the new rules almost undoubtedly would cause some sports programs to lose the affected sport for a year or two. But in some of our universities, considering the money that big-time sports brings in, that threat is most likely the only effective deterrent left.